Former WWE referee Mike Chioda recently appeared on an AdFreeShows Patreon exclusive interview. The special episode of the Monday Mailbag would see Chioda tell an unbelievable story regarding The Big Show, Pat Patterson and Vince McMahon from the 90s.
“We’re in North Carolina” Chioda began on the show. “We’re at the show, and of course Vince [McMahon] and Pat [Patterson] would always watch the monitors. They would watch what WCW was doing, and it’d be in Vince’s office. I’d say three to six months prior to this show in North Carolina? We’re doing Monday Night Raw and I’d met Big Show, before he was a wrestler. And I was in a nightclub in Philadelphia, I lived in South Jersey, and I was in a nightclub in Delaware Ave, in Philadelphia.”
“Well, who comes up to me? Big Show” Chioda continued. “He comes up to me and I turn around. This guy is huge! I’m like ‘holy sh*t, my god this is another Andre [The Giant].’ So, I talked to Big Show for a while at that club, and he knew who I was and everything, that’s why he came up to me. I mean his hands are huge, he’s got great hair, he’s in great shape, AND he’s huge. So I get his name and his number.
Big Show as The Giant
“I’m at TVs one day and I said, ‘Pat, you’ve gotta check this guy out, he’s another Andre The Giant, unbelievable great shape. Huge, long hair, hands just like Andre! I’m like flipping out with Pat, you know? I’m telling them, ‘you got to call this guy!'”
Chioda would then reveal the funniest part of the story. “So a couple months goes by and that’s when I’m walking past Vince’s office in North Carolina. And all of a sudden? I see Big Show, which then he was Paul Wright, I saw him in WCW on the monitor. Vince and Pat had their eyes on his monitor like ‘holy sh*t who is this guy!?'”
“So I walked by, and I’d seen him on the monitor. I go ‘hey Pat, what happened to that guy? He didn’t work out? Or he didn’t want to come over here?’ Vince looks at me, looks at Pat. Pat goes ‘what do you mean?’ I said ‘I gave you that guy’s phone number a couple months ago, Pat. I told you I met him in Philadelphia nightclub. He was a bouncer.’
Then Vince McMahon lost it. “Vince went, ‘What the f*ck Pat!’ Vince goes ‘Mike, you mean this guy!?’ and I went ‘yes that guy.’ I get out of there because Vince says ‘excuse me, Mike,’ and he slams the door!”
“Only five minutes later Pat comes and chases me down. He said ‘Mike what the f*ck! What the f*ck? You gave me HIS number? That was him!? I said yes, that was him. ‘I thought you were talking about El Gigante! we had already signed him!'”
So Big Show could’ve been in WWE before he went to WCW.
